brain research

brain research

With a recent upgrade to the 3-Tesla (3-T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, Penn State will soon have one of the most technologically advanced scanners in the country. The upgrade will give researchers access to a clearer and more detailed picture of the human brain and its functions, as well as other bodily structures.

For centuries, the brain has been the subject of countless philosophical and scientific debates. Recently, many discoveries and theories have cropped up around how the brain works, and those theories are helping us better understand the brain's role in health and behavior. Faculty members in the College of Health and Human Development are advancing several subfields of neuroscience research, looking at topics that include aggression, movement and iron deficiency.

Penn State's Chandlee Laboratory, recently renovated at University Park for a new life as home to the Social, Life and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center, or SLEIC, held an open house Monday afternoon (April 13) to celebrate its new multidisciplinary research scanning facility. Penn State College of Medicine now has a twin of the MRI machine in Hershey, which will allow University Park researchers and their colleagues at Penn State Hershey's Center for NMR Research to collaborate more effectively to unlock secrets of the brain.